Stephen Colbert called Paramount Global’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump a “big fat bribe” on the July 14, 2025, episode of The Late Show. Less than 48 hours later, CBS told him the show was over. That sequence — the Colbert, Trump, and CBS settlement fallout — became the year’s sharpest test of whether a major broadcaster would protect its own host after he criticized its corporate deal-making, and CBS’s answer set off congressional investigations, a press-freedom backlash, and a public fight that ran through the show’s final episode in May 2026.
What the Trump Lawsuit Was About
Trump sued CBS on October 31, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act.1CourtListener. Trump v. CBS Broadcasting Inc. The complaint targeted an October 7, 2024, 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump argued that CBS aired two edited versions of Harris’s answer to a question about the Israel-Gaza war — a longer one on Face the Nation earlier that day, a shorter one on 60 Minutes — and that the edit made her sound better than her unedited “word salad” response.2BBC. Paramount Settles With Trump for $16m Over 60 Minutes Interview With Kamala Harris CBS said the edit was routine, done to keep a long answer “more succinct,” and was handled “by the book.”3CBS News. 60 Minutes Statement
The case went to Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a 2019 Trump appointee and the sole judge in the Amarillo division.4CBS News. Paramount Trump 60 Minutes Lawsuit Settlement Trump initially sought $10 billion. In February 2025 he amended the complaint, added a federal false-advertising claim, brought in Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson as a co-plaintiff, and doubled the demand to $20 billion.5The Guardian. Paramount Settles With Trump for $16m Over 60 Minutes Interview With Kamala Harris
Why Paramount Paid Anyway
Paramount’s own lawyers publicly described the lawsuit as “completely without merit.” The company settled anyway, and the reason critics kept pointing to was not the case itself but the $8 billion sale of Paramount to Skydance Media, which required FCC approval. Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, whose family holding company faced significant debt and needed the deal to close, signaled to insiders that she wanted the lawsuit resolved rather than fought.6New York Times. Trump Paramount CBS 60 Minutes Lawsuit The FCC, chaired by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, had reopened an investigation into whether 60 Minutes had engaged in “news distortion,” and that inquiry sat directly on top of the pending merger.7NPR. FCC ABC NBC Reviews
Journalists inside CBS pushed back hard. 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned on April 22, 2025, writing that “it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”8New York Times. CBS 60 Minutes Trump Bill Owens CBS News president Wendy McMahon resigned on May 19, saying “the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”9CNN. CBS News Wendy McMahon Exits Amid Trump Lawsuit 60 Minutes The seven on-air 60 Minutes correspondents, including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Anderson Cooper, and Bill Whitaker, told executives in a joint message that when the program was “factually correct,” it “must defend themselves from attack.”10Status News. 60 Minutes Paramount Settlement
The Terms of the $16 Million Settlement
Paramount and Trump reached the settlement on July 1, 2025.11AP News. Paramount Will Pay $16 Million in Settlement With Trump Over 60 Minutes Interview The $16 million was directed to Trump’s future presidential library rather than to him personally, and 60 Minutes committed to release transcripts of future interviews with presidential candidates, subject to legal and national security redactions. No apology was included.12PBS NewsHour. Paramount Will Pay $16 Million to Settle Trump Lawsuit Over 60 Minutes Interview With Harris
Colbert’s “Big Fat Bribe” Monologue
Colbert used his July 14, 2025, monologue to name what he saw. “I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: It’s big fat bribe, because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.”13Deadline. Stephen Colbert Trump 60 Minutes Settlement Paramount He kept going. “As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”14Fortune. Why Was Stephen Colbert Canceled by CBS Paramount Trump
The Cancellation Two Days Later
On July 17, 2025, CBS announced that The Late Show would end in May 2026.15Writers Guild of America. WGA Statement on Paramounts Decision to Cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert The network called the move “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and said it was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”16Fox News. CBS Pulls Plug on Stephen Colberts Liberal Late Night Show Reports at the time indicated the show was losing roughly $40 million per year on a $100 million annual budget.
Colbert said he got no advance warning and learned of the decision on the evening of July 16. In a November 2025 interview with The Guardian, he described the show as “the first number one show to ever get cancelled” and said of the settlement, “It is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual.”17The Guardian. Stephen Colbert Late Show Cancellation CBS
Senate and Union Investigations
The Writers Guild of America East and West called the cancellation a “bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration,” noted that the show was first in its time slot, asked the New York State Attorney General to investigate potential wrongdoing at Paramount, and said it would pursue “all potential legal and political avenues” on behalf of members.18USA Today. Colbert Show Cancelled CBS WGA Investigation
On July 21, 2025, Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders wrote to Skydance CEO David Ellison demanding answers about what they called a potential “secret side deal” between Skydance and Trump, reportedly involving $15 million to $20 million in additional commitments beyond the $16 million settlement. The senators asked directly whether the cancellation was part of an arrangement to satisfy the administration as a condition of merger approval.19Office of Senator Wyden. Wyden Colleagues Investigate Skydances Role in Potential Secret Trump Payoff Connected to Paramount Deal Skydance answered the initial inquiry but declined to address the side-deal question, acknowledging only “routine and customary interactions” with government officials. By October 2025, the senators sent a follow-up warning that the refusal “leaves key unanswered questions” about potential violations of federal bribery laws.20Office of Senator Warren. Warren Sanders Wyden Question Skydances Refusal to Address Trump Secret Side Deal
PEN America called the settlement a “spineless capitulation.”21PEN America. Paramounts Settlement With President Trump Is a Spineless Capitulation and a Blow to Press Freedom The Freedom of the Press Foundation called it a “calculated surrender” and began exploring a shareholder derivative lawsuit against Paramount’s board, arguing the payment was an illegal bribe that breached the directors’ fiduciary duties.22Columbia Journalism Review. Paramount Trump Lawsuit Settlement Skydance Merger Press Freedom
The Merger Approval and Its Conditions
On July 24, 2025, one week after the cancellation, the FCC approved Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount.23Politico. FCC Greenlights Skydance Paramount CBS The conditions attached went beyond a typical broadcast license transfer. Skydance committed to installing an ombudsman for at least two years to field complaints about bias at CBS, conducting a “comprehensive review” to ensure CBS programming reflected “a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum,” and eliminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the merged company.24FCC. Paramount Skydance Merger Approval Puck News reporter Dylan Byers called the sequence a “pay-for-play regulatory environment.”25PBS NewsHour. The Politics Behind the $8B Paramount Skydance Merger
The Equal-Time Fight During the Final Season
The friction did not end with the cancellation announcement. In February 2026, with the show still airing, CBS lawyers blocked Colbert from broadcasting an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas. The network cited the FCC’s “equal time” rule, which requires broadcasters to give opposing candidates equivalent airtime.26PBS NewsHour. Stephen Colbert Isnt Backing Down From Dispute With CBS Over What He Can Air
Colbert argued talk shows had been exempt from the equal-time requirement since the 1960s, and that while FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had expressed interest in removing the exemption, he had not done so. “CBS generously did it for him,” Colbert said on air.27Scripps News. CBS Stopped Stephen Colbert From Airing Interview With Texas Democrat Host Says He was told not to mention the restriction on air, and defied the instruction. When CBS publicly denied that its lawyers had blocked the interview, Colbert wrapped a copy of the statement in a dog poop bag on camera and threw it away. He posted the Talarico interview on YouTube, where it drew more than five million views, roughly double the nightly broadcast audience. Talarico reported raising $2.5 million in donations within 24 hours of the upload.26PBS NewsHour. Stephen Colbert Isnt Backing Down From Dispute With CBS Over What He Can Air
How It Ended
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired its final episode on May 21, 2026, after more than 1,800 episodes across 11 seasons. Paul McCartney was the last guest and closed the night with “Hello, Goodbye” alongside Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste, and Louis Cato.28USA Today. Stephen Colbert Late Show Final Episode Live Updates Colbert addressed the cancellation only briefly on air: “It’s our last show because we were canceled, and I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”29Deadline. Late Show Stephen Colbert Finale Recap Highlights The Senate inquiry into the alleged side deal remained open, with Skydance still declining to answer the specific question of whether the cancellation was tied to merger approval.